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In my earlier post, I introduced you to the booming economy of On Demand Mobile Service. In case you missed it, ODMS is essentially mobile services ordered by consumers as and when they need it, with an expectation of immediate delivery of their goods or arrival of their service. The key difference between consumers buying online and On Demand Mobile Service is speed of delivery.

The huge appeal of On Demand Mobile Service is that you can order what you want, when you want it versus pre-booking or ordering in advance – with an expectation that it will be dispatched immediately, reducing wait time and simplifying the value chain.

It’s no secret that most consumers are impatient. We buy online and we want instant gratification. When do I want it delivered? Now!

Clicks and mortar businesses are continuously speeding up the delivery process in order to retain their loyal customer base. Amazon and Iconic are just two examples of offering same day delivery options which broke the mold. The juggernaut that is Uber further intensified the mobile services space. Today, On Demand Mobile Services is one of the most exciting and fastest growing economies in the technology arena.

Using a ready made platform that provides you with real time delivery or fulfillment means you can get to market more quickly than if you built everything from scratch.

Here is a great info-graphic outlining the current on demand economy:

vWork is the ideal out of the box solution to help you secure invaluable first to market positioning.

vWork enables marketplaces to deliver on their promise of On Demand Mobile Service by providing the out of the box platform they need for real time order allocation and dispatch to mobile workers. Our mobile technology enables them to fulfill orders faster than other systems, and provides the critical speed to market position marketplaces need to beat the competition!

A proven platform, vWork has been developed and fine-tuned by our team over the past 8 years. The combined knowledge and experience we have acquired in developing real time mobile technology gives customers confidence in our product. vWork provides the integration, automation and real time visibility needed for speed to market with specific functionality built around order scheduling, allocating and dispatching to mobile workers. vWork is ideal for marketplaces who wish to aggregate consumer demand and need a platform to manage operations and the mobile workforce.

The diagram below shows how vWork works as a platform for marketplaces built around the value proposition of ODMS. This particular customer is Food Panda which provides food delivery services to over 30 countries worldwide.

The marketplace provides the mechanism to place the order: vWork manages the process of the order getting to the best available worker and the customer gets their meal – all within a matter of minutes.

On demand everything: Funding hits $9.4B since 2010

Internationally, financial investment into On Demand Mobile Services is at an all time high. Investment activity in on-demand mobile services rose 514% YoY to hit $4.12B in 2014. A spate of huge funding rounds including to Uber and Lyft have lifted funding in just the first four months of 2015 to $3.78B across just under half the deals tracked in 2014.

The level of financial confidence in this emerging sector should motivate service providers to invest in mobile technology to secure or retain their competitive advantage.

Not so long ago, the next big thing was apps and smart phones and the speed and efficiency they brought businesses and consumers alike.

Now with smart phone penetration at an all-time high, mobile e-commerce is booming. According to an e-Marketer report, between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1% to 69.4% of the global population (Worldwide Mobile Phone Users: H1 2014 Forecast and Comparative Estimates).

Thanks to the exponential smartphone uptake and rapid technology development, the era of On Demand Mobile Services has dawned!

So what exactly is On Demand Mobile Services?

There are many different explanations out there, here are a few that I think best summarize ODMS:

“The On Demand Economy is defined as the economic activity created by technology companies that fulfill consumer demand via the immediate provisioning of goods and services” Mike Jaconi, Co-founder, Button

How does it work?

Not too long ago, when we searched online for a service provider, we needed to call or email them, wait for them to get back to us, schedule a convenient time, wait for the provider to turn up and then pay them with cash, credit card or by internet payment later on. This process was exhausting and time consuming!

Now today, a huge range of mobile services, particularly On Demand Mobile Services, remove the friction and deliver a painless experience for the customer.

The ability to order services online will result in an explosion of on demand services over the next few years. ODMS can be anything from food delivery, home services through to babysitters, ordered by the customer using their mobile (or other device) and delivered to their door in a short space of time.

Think minutes, not hours!

Here is a great overview of the current On Demand economy which covers the different industries seeing growth in ODMS currently:

So why are On Demand Mobile Service industries seeing rapid growth?

The key difference between consumers buying online with their mobile phone and on demand mobile service is speed of delivery. It’s no secret that most consumers are impatient. We buy online and we want instant gratification. When do we want it delivered? Now! Clicks and mortar businesses are continuously speeding up the delivery process in order to retain their loyal customer base. Amazon and Iconic are just two examples of offering same day delivery options which broke the mold. Uber is probably the best known On Demand Mobile Service provider and their meteoric rise to success has been phenomenal.

Purchasing online, via mobile gives consumers the convenience of shopping for anything, anywhere, anytime. Adding in the final component of immediate delivery completes the transaction for the customer. On Demand Mobile Service provides customers with the power to order whatever they need and have it delivered right to their doorstep.

Using a ready made platform such as vWork, that provides you with real time delivery or fulfillment, means you can get to market more quickly than if you built everything from scratch.

Service providers will need to consider mobile on demand options to remain competitive

Existing businesses will need to look at their delivery model and adapt through the implementation of smart technology to take their offering to the next level. Otherwise they will need to be prepared to lose their valuable customer base to competitors and new start ups who build their service around the on demand mobile model.

Here is a detailed info-graphic from Juggernaut that I think sums the whole ODMS economy really well – it’s long but really informative!

If you have a paper-based process, then this could be contributing factor. Many service providers find it difficult to make sufficient time for end of month reconciliation and chasing debtors – you are just trying to keep up with meeting customer demands and managing your employees. Paperwork and admin tasks can pile up and collecting outstanding accounts handed off to other admin staff to deal with – at further cost to your business.

Revenue leakage stalls growth and reduces profitability for business owners

Revenue leakage can be a problem for service providers with mobile workers. If you do not have an efficient system with full visibility of what workers are doing during their day, how long they are actually on site and feeding that information accurately back to the office for billing, funds will potentially flow out of your bank account faster than they flow in. It can be challenging to keep on top of everything as well as build for growth and revenue may not be reflective of your efforts.

Mobile field service workers are responsible for customer satisfaction and keeping accurate records for invoicing

Field service workers have the responsibility of not only servicing their customers, but also of managing the job transactions, materials used and invoicing. This includes ensuring that signatures are captured at the beginning and completion of each job, delivering accurate paperwork for invoicing and making sure warranties and contracts are adhered to.

When something goes wrong, it can lead to disputes with customers, which delay payment on work performed or sacrifice what could have been the ideal up-selling opportunity, repeat business and referrals. You then lose precious time remedying the situation for a customer as well as impact your ability to collect payments that are due.

A smart and simple solution is to implement a mobile software solution

A field service management platform can help you better manage jobs, workers and invoicing all in one easy place. Automated job alerts, reports and invoicing will save you hours of painful admin each month. You can focus on growing your business by providing excellent, prompt service and keep your customers updated with automated alerts and status updates. You can also replace arduous invoicing each month with automatic invoicing which email the invoice to the customer as soon as the job is completed.

Best in Class continue to invest in mobile technology for real-time visibility into service work

Aberdeen Group highlighted in their Empower Tech 3.0 report that the Best in Class continue to invest in mobile technology to ensure the service team and teams that interact with the field have real-time visibility into service work. Furthermore, 8 out of 10 organizations see mobility as a strategic initiative for their business and top performers are using mobility to drive at key metrics for success – such as customer and employee satisfaction, workforce utilization, first-time fix, and service contract renewals.

So think about where revenue leaks could be occurring in your business due to gaps in your current workflow and systems. Then book a live demo or signup for a free trial and see how vWork can help you to plug them up for good!